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Staff members with discipline Humanities, Multidisciplinary

Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.

Overview of all disciplines

digital humanities, digital cultural heritage, media history, media archaeology, digital history, web history, media technologies, audiovisual culture, everyday media practices (home movies, technologies of memory) documentary theory and history, film history, visual culture.
prof. dr. S.I. (Susan) Aasman
Contact
s.i.aasman rug.nl
+31 50 36 34648
Function
Professor of Digital Humanities
Field / Discipline
Paleografische kennis van het Nederlands en Duits op wetenschappelijk niveau. Combinatie van doctoraal kunstgeschiedenis, archivistiek op wetenschappelijk niveau en kunstonderwijs op HBO-niveau.
A.M. (Annelies) Abelmann
Contact
a.m.abelmann rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Field / Discipline
Qualitative ethnographic research

Syrian diasporic communities in Europe

Migration studies
A. (Halim) Albakkor, MA MSc
Contact
a.albakkor rug.nl
Function
J. (Julia) Alting, MA
Contact
j.alting rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Modernism, Post-Modernism, the Enlightenment, Theory and Philosophy, Post-Humanism, Imperialism, Cultural Geography, Poetry, Poetics and Publishing
D.M. (David) Ashford, Dr
Contact
d.m.ashford rug.nl
Function
Vanessa Bakhuizen-van 't Hoogt is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Material Culture. Her research is part of the NWO-project Curious Hands. Moving Making to the Core of Education and focuses on the way in which making is learned and taught in educational workshops. She strives to answer the question how patterns of teaching and learning making can be made explicit, including embodied processes and material knowledge. 

Vanessa develops and teaches various object-based, hands-on and experiential courses at the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Groningen. 

In the BA1course Paint to Pixel, taught together with prof. dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann, we introduce art history students to artists’ materials and techniques by the means of object- and practice-based pedagogy. The students experience materials and techniques hands-on during excursions to the workshops of Minerva Art academy, as well as in the seminars and the assignments (historical reconstructions).  

In the interdisciplinary elective course Under the Skin, which I developed together with pedagogue and educator Margreet Smit, we enhance the reflective potential of second year medical students by drawing on teaching methods from philosophy, psychology, (art) history and arts, and crafts. Making (e.g. materializing their ongoing explorations and reflections in an art-based form) was our main didactic method to create space for reflection. 

Together with visual artist and researcher Henrike Scholten I designed and taught the elective course Deconstructing Instructions that investigates and reflects critically on the art academy’s history. Using a historically informed, experimental and practice-based pedagogic approach, the 16-week course challenged 23 undergraduate art students to engage with the material and didactic heritage of the art academy.
V.S. (Vanessa) Bakhuizen-van 't Hoogt, MA
Contact
v.van.t.hoogt rug.nl
Function
PhD candidate
A.F. (Arjen) Bakker, PhD
Contact
a.f.bakker rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism
Semitic Languages and Cultures, Hebrew Language and Literature. Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval Hebrew Poetry, Judeo-Islamic culture, European Jewish History.
prof. dr. W.J. (Wout) van Bekkum
Contact
w.j.van.bekkum rug.nl
Function
Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
Imka Buurke is a PhD candidate at the Department of Art History and Material Culture. Her research is part of the NWO project Curious Hands. Moving Making to the Core of Education and focuses on education at the intersection of art, science and technology in an Educational Laboratory (E-lab) in which embodiment and materiality play a role. Together with a research team consisting of teachers from four different secondary schools, they design education in which artistic learning and research processes underline the importance of materiality and embodiment.
No picture available
Contact
i.m.buurke rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Medieval History; History of Reading in Premodern Europe; European Culture and Literature in the Middle Ages
S. (Sabrina) Corbellini, Prof Dr
Contact
s.corbellini rug.nl
Function
Professor "History of Reading in Premodern Europe"
Social networks, historical networks, digital humanities, interdisciplinary research
S.J. (Silvia) Donker, MA
Contact
s.j.donker rug.nl
Function
PhD student in Digital Humanities
L.R. (Linde) Draaisma, MA
Contact
l.r.draaisma rug.nl
Function
PhD candidate
No picture available
Contact
a.erdogan rug.nl
Function
PhD student
I am lecturer in Italian Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen, and PhD candidate in Italian Literature at the Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University. In 2019 I graduated cum laude from the Research Master’s program in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Groningen (NL); I had previously obtained my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Catania (IT) in 2016, where I started studying Italian literature. In Fall 2018, I was a research intern at the University of Ghent, in Belgium, in the framework of the ERC-funded project “Narrating the Mesh” (NARMESH).

My research focuses on non-anthropocentric conceptualizations of animality and general nonhumanity in Italian modernist literature. I build on Herman’s (2011) remodelling of Modernism through the lens of Enactivism, but instead of looking at themes and contents, I prefer to study the texts through a Neo-Formalist perspective (Levine 2015), meaning that the core of my studies points at the formal narrative innovations produced by Italian Modernism. The aim is to identify the forms used to represent nonhumanity and its relationship with humanity, so to offer new tools to represent them in today’s literature. Accordingly, I employ theories drawn from Posthumanism, Ecocriticism, Animal Studies and New Materialism, so to combine an innovative take on forms and an undertheorized topic such as nonhumanity in Italian literature.

The authors I currently have under examination are Carlo Emilio Gadda and Luigi Pirandello.
S.L. (Santi Luca) Famà, MA
Contact
s.l.fama rug.nl
Function
(Global) Media, Cultural Industries, Internet Governance, Gender and Technology, Critical Theory and Decoloniality
prof. dr. M.I. (Marianne ) Franklin
Contact
m.i.franklin rug.nl
Function
Arts and Cognition, Empirical Aesthetics, Arts and Gender, Neuroaesthetics, Philosophy of Art. 
H.G. (Héctor) Gallegos González, MA
Contact
h.g.gallegos.gonzalez rug.nl
+31 50 36 36070
Function
Musicology
Cultural history
dr. J. van Gessel
Contact
j.van.gessel rug.nl
Function
Research
Mediaeval History; Cultural and Religious History; Human-Animal Studies; Critical Animal Studies; Posthumanism; Cultural Heritage; Mediaevalisms in Videogames

Education
Coordination of the Dutch Studies programme at the Faculty of Arts. 
S. (Sven) Gins, MA
Contact
s.gins rug.nl
+31 50 36 37318
Function
PhD Researcher / Dutch Studies Coordinator

Alberto Godioli is Associate Professor in European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen, and Programme Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL). He obtained his PhD in 2012 from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa; from 2013 to 2015 he was a Newton International Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.

His main research field is humor and satire across media. He has authored the monographs Laughter from Realism to Modernism (Oxford: Legenda / Routledge, 2015) and La scemenza del mondo (Pisa: ETS, 2011, Edinburgh Gadda First Prize), as well as several articles and book chapters on theories and practices of humor from the 18th century to the present.

His current work focuses on humor and free speech jurisprudence, in dialogue with stakeholders such as Columbia Global Freedom of Expression and Cartoonists' Rights Network International. In 2021 he was awarded an NWO Vidi Grant for his project 'Humor in Court' (original title 'Forensic Humor Analysis', 2022-2027). This interdisciplinary project aims to set the basis for a fairer, more consistent approach to humor in legal cases concerning freedom of expression, based on insights coming from humanities-based humor research.

Alberto is also the founder and co-director of the Forum for Humor and the Law (ForHum) and of the OSL research group Literature, Law and Society, as well as the Principal Investigator of the NETIAS Constructive Advanced Thinking project 'Cartoons in Court' (main host: Institute for Advanced Study CEU Budapest, 2020-2023). His research areas also include Modernism, Law and Literature, Posthumanism, Narrative Theory and Cognitive Literary Studies.
A. (Alberto) Godioli, PhD
Contact
a.godioli rug.nl
Function
Associate Professor
Placement and internships, Labour Market Faculty of Arts
E.E. (Esther) Haag, MA
Contact
e.e.haag rug.nl
+31 50 36 35844
Function
Placement Coordinator Faculty of Arts
Identity negotiation in companion service
X. (Xuedi) Han
Contact
xuedi.han rug.nl
+31 6 1033 0297
Function
PhD student
Julian Hanich is the author of three monographs: The Audience Effect: On the Collective Cinema Experience (Edinburgh UP), Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear (Routledge) and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau: City Girl (Edition Text + Kritik). With Daniel Fairfax, he co-edited The Structures of the Film Experience by Jean-Pierre Munier: Historical Assessments and Phenomenological Expansions (Amsterdam UP); and with Christian Ferencz-Flatz he was responsible for an issue of Studia Phaenomenologica on ‘Film and Phenomenology.’ Currently, he is co-editing, with Martin Rossouw, a volume entitled What Film Is Good For: On the Values of Spectatorship (University of California Press, 2023) and, with Michael Wedel, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (Edition Text + Kritik, 2023). His research focuses on film aesthetics, cinematic emotions, film and imagination, film phenomenology, the collective cinema experience, and the beautiful in film.
J. (Julian) Hanich, Prof Dr
Contact
j.hanich rug.nl
Function
Associate Professor of Film Studies (Universitair hoofddocent 1)
A.R. (Anna-Rosja) Haveman
Contact
a.haveman rug.nl
Function
Field / Discipline
Palaeography and the Dead Sea Scrolls
G.A. (Gemma) Hayes, MA
Contact
g.a.hayes rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Field / Discipline
Culture, Communication & Leadership 
Shakespeare, Presentism & Performance
Ethnic and Racial Studies
No picture available
Contact
c.p.a.heijes rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Historical anthropology; medieval and cultural history; methods and theory; history of ideas, esp. the French intellectual tradition; the relationship between religion and the academic discourse; the relationship between texts and images.

dr. B.S. (Babette) Hellemans
Contact
b.s.hellemans rug.nl
+31 50 36 36035
Function
lecturer
performing theory and analysis, contemporary theatre, evaluation processes and theatre criticism, theatrepolicy
drs. L.D.M.E. (Lucia) van Heteren
Contact
l.d.m.e.van.heteren rug.nl
+31 50 36 36078 secr etar y
Function
docente theaterwetenschap
Theory of culture; culture and cognition; arts and cognition; arts  and culture education
prof. dr. B.P. (Barend) van Heusden
Contact
b.p.van.heusden rug.nl
+31 50 36 36018
Function
Professor
Global Health
Essential Medicines
Human rights (Right to Health)
Universal access to basic health care (Access to Essential Medicines)
Essential Medicines for Reproductive Health
National Pharmaceutical Policies in developing countries
WHO, UN agencies
prof. dr. H.V. ("Hans") Hogerzeil
Contact
h.v.hogerzeil umcg.nl
Function
Cultural Narratology and Thanatology
Q.T. (Krina) Huisman, MA
Contact
q.t.huisman rug.nl
+31 50 36 37123
Function
PhD student
prof. dr. G.T. (Goffe) Jensma, PhD
Contact
g.t.jensma rug.nl
Function
Professor of Frisian Language and Literature
History of religion & politics; history of Europe in the twentieth century, especially France; human rights; modern & contemporary Christianity, especially dissident forms of Catholicism and Protestantism
R.M. (Rachel) Johnston-White, PhD
Contact
r.m.johnston-white rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor of Contemporary History
bc. P.F. (Fredrik) Karlsson
Contact
p.f.karlsson rug.nl
+31 50 750 6116
Function
Teacher
Field / Discipline
Emillie is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Open Intelligence Lab, and a research consultant for the UN DPPA Innovation Cell. Her research lies on the formation of speech norms in social media content moderation and their impact in the formation of online counter-spheres. With the UN DPPA Innovation Cell, she develops analytical software and research methods for monitoring public conflict and dialogue across the web.

Keywords: digital methods, content moderation, online extremism, conflict monitoring
E.V. (Emillie Victoria) de Keulenaar, MA
Contact
e.v.de.keulenaar rug.nl
Function
PhD student
My research develops a process-based approach to art and visual material culture. In particular, I study how materials, tools, and practices partake in the meaning making of art; how images and texts represent and reflect creative practices; and how knowledge about making engenders material literacy. My approach is transhistorical and includes old and new media, ranging from oil paint and clay to aniline dyes and software. For an overview of academic activities and published work, see also: https://rug.academia.edu/AnnSophieLehmann

Interview for the Materialized Identies Project: https://www.materializedidentities.com/single-post/2017/08/02/Interview-with-Ann-Sophie-Lehmann
A.S. (Ann-Sophie) Lehmann, Prof Dr
Contact
a.s.lehmann rug.nl
Function
Chair of Art History & Material Culture
Field / Discipline
20th Century American Literature
English for Academic Purposes
English proficiency
Presentation skills
Writing skills

Holds: UTQ
drs. J.R. (J.R.) van Loon
Contact
j.r.van.loon rug.nl
+31 50 36 35802
Function
English Lecturer
Gemma López Canicio is Research Fellow in European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen. Her expertise is in narrative research, emphasizing artistic-narrative communication (literature and cinema), fiction, story-telling, and representation from a cognitive sciences and interactive narrative research (videogames) perspective. Currently, she is interested in integrating my narrative research and neuro-cognition research expertise with new interdisciplinary methods and resources valuable to face contemporary social challenges with an international scope.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Spanish: Language and Literatures from the University of Alicante and a Master's Degree in Art, Literature and Culture from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 2016, she was awarded a Collaboration Grant by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport to conduct a study about the limits of fiction in literature. She obtained her PhD in Art, Literature and Culture in 2020 from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) (Cum Laude Distinction and International Mention). Her research was funded from 2017 to 2020 with a research grant provided by the José Luis de Oriol-Catalina de Urquijo Foundation. Gemma carries out multidisciplinary research in Humanities, Literary Theory, Cognitive Sciences, and Communication.

In addition, she is a member of the Communication [Poetics and Rhetoric] Research Group (C [P y R]) and a foundational member of the Spanish Society of Rhetoric [Se-Ret].
G. (Gemma) Lopez Canicio, PhD
Contact
g.lopez.canicio rug.nl
Function
interdisciplinary modernism, modern and contemporary British literature (specializing in the literature of the mid-twentieth century), literature and politics, environmental humanities, the novel
No picture available
Contact
a.k.maher rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Children's use of digital media - The development of digital literacy; media literacy; news competencies; citizenship
D. (Denise) Mensonides
Contact
d.mensonides rug.nl
Function
PhD-Student
Interfaculty PhD candidate with a background in the visual arts researching the future of our digital past, connected to the Knowledge Infrastructures department at Campus Fryslan and the Department of Media and Journalism Studies. Embedded in Science and Technology Studies and Digital Humanities, with special attention to digital sustainability and co-creation practices. Expertise in ethnographic collaborative research.
M. (Marije) Miedema, MA
Contact
m.miedema rug.nl
+31 6 3198 4332
Function
PhD student
Fields of Expertise: Political Theory, Digital Humanities, Global & Local Governance.

My PhD project focuses on digital democratic innovations and their potential for increased citizens’ participation, deliberation and influence on political decision-making. In particular, I am interested in investigating the downfalls and gaps in current designs of digital participation systems to identify opportunities for their improvement, thus making democratic innovations more inclusive, deliberative, and empowering.
A.A. (Anna) Mikhaylovskaya, MA
Contact
a.a.mikhaylovskaya rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Media and Communication, Digital media studies, Migration and Diaspora studies, Gender studies, Postcolonial studies, Cultural studies
C. (Claudia) Minchilli, PhD
Contact
c.minchilli rug.nl
Function
Field / Discipline
Research expertise in the areas of gender and feminisms, decolonization, and poverty, through the lens of tourism. Also interested in qualitative approaches to research, in particular arts-based and decolonizing methdologies.
M.L. (Meghan) Muldoon, PhD
Contact
m.l.muldoon rug.nl
Function
Main research topic: How do people share their existential issues in a constructive way? And what kind of support might be helpful in different work and care contexts? Concrete research contexts/projects:
1) The earthquake region Groningen: disaster chaplaincy; 2) UMCG: addressing the spiritual dimension in hospital; 3) Student internship project: connecting different organizational levels by meaningful exchanges; 4) low literacy and meaning making in east Groningen; 5) Grief, trauma and religion/spirituality in Mental Health Care
prof. dr. J.K. (Hanneke) Muthert
Contact
j.k.muthert rug.nl
+31 50 36 35572
Function
Professor Psychology of Religion with special attention for Spiritual Care and Wellbeing
Jewish Studies; Midrash; Culture and Cognition; Cognitive Science of religion; Cultural study of Emotions
dr. R. (Ronit) Nikolsky
Contact
r.nikolsky rug.nl
+31 50 36 37255
Function
Assistant Professor Culture and Cognition
Film Theory, Aesthetics of Technology, Visual Media, Experimental Media Archaeology, Theory and History of the Grotesque.
prof. dr. A.M.A. (Annie) van den Oever
Contact
a.m.a.van.den.oever rug.nl
Function
Arts Culture and Media / Film
Field / Discipline
Embodiment, mobilities, technology, digital geographies, methods.
dr. T.C. (Tess) Osborne, PhD
Contact
t.osborne rug.nl
Function
Researcher & Lecturer
dr. V. (Veronica) Peselmann
Contact
v.peselmann rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor for Modern and Contemporary Art
Field / Discipline
I'm interested in digital social reading (how people write and read fiction online) and I use computational, qualitative, and quantitative methods to study how people read.

I'm Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project GOLEM (Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models).

I'm also a member of the scientific advisory board of OPERAS (the Research Infrastructure supporting open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities in the European Research Area) and Vice President of IGEL (the International Society of the Empirical Study of Literature).
F. (Federico) Pianzola, PhD
Contact
f.pianzola rug.nl
+31 6 3198 4081
Function
Assistant Professor in Computational Humanities
M.E. (Manuel) Pinto Reyes, MA
Contact
m.e.pinto.reyes rug.nl
Function
Lecturer
Research and interventions in the context of serious medical  illness, concerning
- Meaning-in-Life 
- Existential-experiential psychotherapy
- Attachment, loss & trauma
- Patient-therapist relationship
- Psychotherapeutic Patient-care
- Education and Supervision for PhD's, Clinical Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Doctors in training
dr. G. (Grieteke) Pool
Contact
g.pool01 umcg.nl
+31 50 361 6639
Function
Assistant Professor & Clinical Psychologist
Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Artificial Intelligence and palaeography, Judaism in the Graeco-Roman period, archaeology, ancient sciences, astrology, physiognomics and magic

see also http://www.rug.nl/news-and-events/people-perspectives/inbeeld/mpopovic

prof. dr. M. (Mladen) Popovic
Contact
m.popovic rug.nl
Function
Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
Comics studies, narrative theory, word and image
dr. B. (Barbara) Postema
Contact
b.postema rug.nl
+31 6 3198 4150
Function
Lecturer
Science and Technology Studies, Media studies, user studies, co-creation/co-design practices, Living lab methodologies, Digital Humanities, Serendipity, Information studies
dr. S.C. (Sabrina) Sauer
Contact
s.c.sauer rug.nl
Function
Assistant professor Media Studies
human communication, information presentation, human computer interaction, natural language generation, affective computing, multimodal interaction.
dr. I.F. (Ielka) van der Sluis
Contact
i.f.van.der.sluis rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
No picture available
Contact
a.p.smit rug.nl
Function
PhD Candidate
Memory Studies
Social Media
App Studies
Media Theory 
dr. P.H. (Rik) Smit
Contact
p.h.smit rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor Media Studies
Multilingual Digital Humanities, Information Studies, Human-Centered AI, complex systems and complexity thinking, interdisciplinary minority studies, linguistic justice, computational history of ideas (social and semantic network analysis).
Religion, Conflict, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation; Religion and Politics; Religion and Human Security; Climate Change, Conflict, Peace and Security; Community Development; Civil Society and Social Movements; 
J. (Joram) Tarusarira, Dr
Contact
j.tarusarira rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding
American Studies
Colonial America
The American Revolution
The Early American Republic
The US South
The early modern Atlantic World
Ethnicity, national identity, and race
M.L. (Mark) Thompson
Contact
m.l.thompson rug.nl
Function
Senior Lecturer of American Studies
Pablo Valdivia is Chair-Full Professor of European Culture and Literature (University of Groningen), Accreditated Full Professor [Catedrático Universidad] of Arts and Humanities (ANECA, Spain), Associate in Applied Physics at Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Harvard University), Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL), Scientific Advisor of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities and the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIAS-KNAW), Coordinator Research Theme Group Data Science, Culture & Social Change at Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (DemCP, RUG), Co-Editor of the Routledge Companions to Hispanic and Latin American Studies and Research Fellow "Corpus Ex Machina" Research Group Incubator (UdeA). Before joining the University of Groningen in 2016, he worked at the University of Amsterdam, The Cambridge Foundation Villiers Park and the University of Nottingham. He holds a BA in Hispanic Studies from the University of Granada (Spain) and a BA in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Valladolid (Spain). He obtained a Research MA degree in "Research in European Literature and Theatre" awarded by UNED (Spain). In 2007, he received his PhD degree in "Philosophy of Hispanic Studies" at the University of Nottingham. 

His research deals primarily with the "Humanities", "Social Sciences", "Communication", "Computational Literary Studies", "Cultural Analytics" and "Technology", and the notions of "Culture, Literature and Crisis" from a multidisciplinary transnational perspective. He is an expert on "Cultural Narratives" and "Conceptual Metaphors". He carries out multidisciplinary research with particular emphasis on Digital Humanities, Artificial Intelligence, University Innovation, Data Science, Applied Physics, Social Sciences and Cognitive Sciences.

Professor Valdivia is a reviewer and editor of more than a dozen international top scientific journals and book series; the leading researcher of ConnectU in the Erasmus+ INNOVALAB project (European Commission) and an expert reviewer and independent rapporteur of European Commission research projects, among many other international scientific activities and recognitions (see CV). Besides, he regularly advises governments worldwide on Research, Educational Innovation, Higher Education, Science, Technology and Social Affairs.

From 2014 to 2018, Valdivia was President of the Steering Committee of the H2020 European Commission Excellent Science Marie Curie RISE project "Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal (CRIC)" project; from 2016 to 2018 he was Director of the "Research Centre Arts in Society" (AiS University of Groningen), and he founded, in 2019, the "Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics" (DemCP University of Groningen). From 2017 to 2018, Valdivia was Finance Officer CLLiP Programmes (Cultures, Literatures, Linguistics, Politics). In 2018, Prof. Dr Pablo Valdivia was awarded "Lecturer of the Year" Faculty of Arts (University of Groningen). From 2020 to 2022, Professor Valdivia was a Fellow in University Innovation at LASPAU (affiliated with Harvard University). In 2022, LASPAU (affiliated with Harvard University) received the PIEoneer Global Award for the Best Public/Private Partnership under the Program "Innovation in Teaching" to which Professor Valdivia contributed throughout his LASPAU Fellowship.

Currently, Valdivia supervises 13 PhD and 3 Postdoc research projects. 

IMPORTANT!! I DO NOT ACCEPT NEW PHD CANDIDATES. MY SUPERVISION CAPACITY IS FULLY BOOKED FOR 2023 AND 2024! PLEASE, DO NOT CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT TO DO A PHD WITH ME UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2025! THANKS FOR YOUR COLLABORATION!!!

Current PhD Supervision

PhD Candidate Melissa Luypaers, 'Humor, Discrimination and Free Speech Jurisprudence: A Law-and-Humanities Approach'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisor.

PhD Candidate Bianca Ramírez
, ‘Yo sentía que no estábamos solos. Sensorial Perception and its Role in the Experience of Former Detenidos-Desaparecidos’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor, Dr Florian Lippert, Dr Konstantin Mierau and Dr Ksenia Robbe daily supervisors.

PhD Candidate Alessandro di Laurentis, ‘Personaggio, interiorita e tragico nelle novelle di Tozzi e Pirandello’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisor.

PhD Candidate Beer Prakken,
 'Not Just a Joke: On Humour, Polarisation and Responsibility'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia and Professor Dr Bart Streumer main supervisors, Dr Daphne Brandenburg and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisors.

PhD Candidate María Isabel Marín
, 'Can an AI-Enabled System Help Us Understand How Cultural Narratives Are Configured and How Do They Prime Social Mobilization? A Machine Learning Model for Automatic Detection of the Regime(s) of Conceptual Metaphor'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Macr Esteve del Valle daily supervisor.

PhD Candidate Teun Joshua Brandt
, 'Symbiotic Narratives: Contested Agencies in Scientific and Literary Accounts of Human Holobiants'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor, Dr Florian Lippert, Dr Vera Alexander and Dr Fred Keijzer daily supervisors.

PhD Candidate Rosmery-Ann Boegeholz
, ‘The ‘Mirror Syndrome’ as a response to the Beauty Influencers on Instagram: Problems and Effects of the excessive use of images by young university women’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Marc Esteve del Valle and Dr Javier Muñoz Basols daily supervisors.

PhD Candidate Juan Gallego 
Benot, 'How did rhetorical invention in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation shape a conflicting idea of Modernity? An analysis of the discursive construction of a new European society'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia and Professor Dr Tomás Albaladejo main supervisors and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisor. 

PhD Candidate Gonzalo Albornoz
, ‘Fictional Representations of Law, Legality and Justice in Popular Mass Media and the Construction of Legal Knowledge by Key Communities in the Prison Environment’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Konstantin Mierau daily supervisor.

PhD Candidate Elizabeth Duarte
, Twittering for Peace? The Construction of Meaning and Otherness in Digital Media representations of the Colombian Peace Process’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Konstantin Mierau daily supervisor. 

PhD Candidate Rose Smith,
 ‘Identifying the Role of Museums in Central European Post-Communist Nations in the Construction of the Global Memory of Communism’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Ksenia Robbe daily supervisor. 

PhD Candidate Klára Kosova,
 ‘The Role of Economic Elites in the Foreign Policy-Making Process: The Case of Bulgaria’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Lisa Gaufman daily supervisor. 

PhD Candidate Leonardo Arriagada, 
‘CG-Art. An aesthetic discussion of the relationship between artistic creativity and computation’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor, Dr Florian Lippert and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisors.


Current Post-Doc Supervision

Dr Matteo Fiori, 'Humour in Court' (NWO VIDI Grant, 2022-2027, PI Dr Alberto Godioli). Prof Dr Pablo Valdivia and Dr Alberto Godioli supervisors.

Dr Jennifer Young
, 'Humour in Court (NWO VIDI Grant, 2022-2027, PI Dr Alberto Godioli). Prof Dr Pablo Valdivia and Dr Alberto Godioli supervisors.

Dr Dimitris Soudias
, 'Welfare Visions 2.0: Future-Making Practices in the Social Economies of Amsterdam, Athens and Berlin'. Prof Dr Pablo Valdivia and Dr Florian Lippert supervisors.


Completed PhD Supervision and Postdoc
PhD Ruby de Vos,
‘Living with Toxicity: Mapping the Toxic in Contemporary Culture’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Vera Alexander daily supervisor.

PhD Judith Jansma
, ‘From Submission to Soumission: Populists’ perspectives on culture’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor, Professor Dr Lars Rensmann and Dr Alberto Godioli daily supervisors.

PhD Juan del Valle,
‘Imagining the Unpredictable: Communication, Power and Technology in José Ricardo Morales’ Transnational Theatre’. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor and Dr Konstantin Mierau daily supervisor. 

PhD Cristian Crusat
, ‘La construction de la biographie imaginaire’. Professor Ieme van der Poel (University of Amsterdam) and Dr Pablo Valdivia (University of Amsterdam) co-supervisors.

PhD David Martínez Antón
, ‘La teoría de la transducción literaria. Hacia una teoría dialógica de la obra literaria’. Professor Tomás Albaladejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Dr Pablo Valdivia (University of Amsterdam) co-supervisors.

Dr Omar Alcántara, 'Adolescence, Gender and Violence in the Bildungsroman and the Road movies: from Goethe to Alfonso Cuarón'. Professor Dr Pablo Valdivia main supervisor.
P. (Pablo) Valdivia Martin, Prof Dr
Contact
p.valdivia.martin rug.nl
Function
Vera Veldhuizen is assistant professor in both European Languages and Cultures, and Arts, Media, Culture at the University of Groningen. Previously she attended Cambridge University for her PhD in children's literature, with Homerton College and the Faculty of Education, supervised by Maria Nikolajeva. She holds a BA from  University College Roosevelt and an MSc in Literature and Society from Edinburgh University.

Her research is focused on cognitive approaches to children's literature. Her PhD was on empathy, ethics and justice construction children's war literature. Her current project is on the impact and complexity of contrasting truth narratives in children's literature. She has presented her research at many international conferences and through several peer reviewed publications.
dr. V.N. (Vera) Veldhuizen
Contact
v.n.veldhuizen rug.nl
+31 50 36 35202
Function
Assistant Professor
Dr. Pieter Verstraete holds a PhD degree in the Humanities from the Department of Theater Studies and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis of the University of Amsterdam. His expertises are in Theatre and Performance Studies, Sound and Audio Culture Studies, American/English Culture and Literature, Communication Studies and Film Criticism. 

His main research interests lie in contemporary (music) theatre, socio-political, activist forms of performance, exile and post-migration. He also works as a freelance theatre critic. Between 2012 and 2014, he received three consecutive fellowships in Turkey to conduct his postdoc research,  “Post-Migration in Performance”, mainly focusing on the Turkish and Kurdish diaspora in Europe. He is currently preparing a new research project, under the heading, "European Networks for Performing Artists in Exile and Activism". 

In his current research, he looks at the work of Turkish and Kurdish artists who collaborate with European ensembles or who work against censorship practices in Turkey to address socio-cultural issues like exilic life, political resistance, identity and commoration through theatre performances. He also has widely published on intermedial aesthetic strategies of sound, voice and aurality in theatre and interactive installation art.
P.M.G. (Pieter) Verstraete, Dr
Contact
p.m.g.verstraete rug.nl
Function
Ass. Prof. in Arts, Culture and Media
Postcolonial European identity, South African literature, the literary field and the public sphere. Transnational cultural production. Interdisciplinary project-based education.
prof. dr. M.C. (Margriet) van der Waal
Contact
m.c.van.der.waal rug.nl
Function
Associate Professor Euroculture/Professor by special appointment South African literature, culture and history (UvA)
Religion and popular culture; ritual studies; fan studies; digital ethnography; cultural heritage.
W.F. (Welmoed) Wagenaar, MA
Contact
w.f.wagenaar rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Artistic Cognition
Human Cognition
Reflective Imagination
Behavioral Adaptation
Ecological Humanities

_
dr. A. (Alejandra) Wah
Contact
a.wah.laborde rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor of Arts and Cognition
Audience and Reception Research. Interdisciplinary researcher, specialized in aesthetic experiences in relationship to the experience of space and place, focusing on theatre architecture and theatre space, found spaces, industrial heritage and (adaptive) re-use of heritage sites, festivals, theatrical events and the functioning of performing arts in the public domain. Passionate about merging different research methods such as quantitative and qualitative methods, participant observation, archival research, cultural analysis and research through design into the best mix for confronting specific research questions. Experienced teacher with a broad background in the arts, teaching in the areas of arts sociology, cultural policy, arts management and marketing, cultural leadership and methodology at BA, MA and ReMA level.
dr. M.L. (Marline Lisette) Wilders
Contact
m.l.wilders rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor in Arts in Society / Empirical Research Methods Humanities
Religion and diplomacy, secularism, refugees and forced migration, human rights, development, global justice, globalization, climate change
E.K. (Erin) Wilson, Prof Dr
Contact
e.k.wilson rug.nl
Function
Professor of Politics and Religion; Vice Dean and Director of Education
Nature conservation, energy transition, energy cooperatives, science-society dynamics
H.J. (Henny J) van der Windt
Contact
h.j.van.der.windt rug.nl
+31 50 36 32280
Function
Associate Professor
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